Christian Women in Ecclesial Ministry: the First Six Hundred Years

by Agnes Cunningham

From Pro and Con on Ordination of Women
Report and Papers from The United states Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation, Cincinnati, June 1975.

Scholarly investigation and theological research regarding the participation of women in ecclesial ministry during the patristic era have been pursued increasingly in the past decade.(1) In some instances, authors have chosen to explore the question of women’s role in a more general manner. At other times, one or another specific question has been addressed, such as that of the female diaconate, the ordination of women, the function of women regarding Eucharistic worship, the jurisdiction exercised by women in the early Church(2).

A survey of the current serious literature on this topic leads to the conclusion that a certain number of affirmations can be made and generally agreed on by those who favor a fuller participation of women in ecclesial ministry — including ordination to sacremental priesthood — as well as by those who oppose one or another aspect of the issue. This type of agreement is based on a recognition of the importance of Tradition, its role and its interpretation in the Christian Church, as well as on an awareness of the implications of either a reaffirmation of centuries-old practice or a departure from what has been done “from the beginning.”

In the following pages, seven affirmations will be presented. These are the generally-accepted statements referred to in the preceding paragraph. These affirmations will be supported by selected evidences and a brief explanation of the meaning and implications of these statements for a discussion of the role of women in ministry today.

1. There is Evidence that Women Shared in Many and Varied Ministries in the Early Church.

As Daniélou has shown, the entire history of Christianity witnesses to the important participation of women in the mission, the worship and the teaching of the Church. The role of women in the early Church was expressed in a diversity of services — ministries — which differed according to time, place and need.

Outstanding among the ministries entrusted to Christian women in the first six hundred years was that of (agape): the ministry of Christian love.(3) This ministry was a service to be exercised for the purpose of building up the whole Church as a community, in koinonia.(4) Other services derived from this primary ministry, according to the abilities and possibilities of those call to be ministers. The needs of the local eklesia were reflected in the services identified by the episcopos and his faithful and in the models for delivery of these services through the ministers of the community.

2. Although the Practice Varied, According to Time and Place, there was a Real Ordination of Women in Early Christianity.

This affirmation can be made only with the cautionary note that extant evidences for this practice are limited. (5) It would seem certain that the practice was not followed universally at any time during the first six centuries. Furthermore, the admission of women to ordination in any one or in several particular Churches does not seem to have prevailed in continuity over an extended period of time.

3. This Ordination was Valid and, in Every Way, Comparable to the Correponding Ordination of Men in the Ministry Indicated.

The ordination of women seems to have been practiced with greater vigor, more frequently and for longer periods of time in the East.(7) Wherever women were admitted to ordination, the ceremony and the mandate conferred on them corresponded in every way to that available to men.

One sole difference to be noted between the ordination of men and those of women is that ordained women were to exercise their ministry in favor of other women, of girls and of young boys. The ministerial services of men accorded the same ordination were restricted to other men. This twofold restriction is usually attributed to the social customs of the day. It also highlights a theological dimension which the early Christians may have affirmed in the domain of orthopraxy, prior to any reflection or articulation of the doctrine. This dimension is the complementary collaboration to which men and women are called, following the example of the New Adam (Christ) and the New Eve (Mary).(9)

While there seems strong agreement among scholars regarding the validity of the ordination of women in the first six hundred years, there is also agreement that the concept of ordination in the early Church – as well as the concept of priesthood, or orders, of episcopacy and of sacrament — was in no way as developed or as precise as it has become in the course of history.(10) In other words, the relation between the teaching and practice of the early Church and contemporary doctrinal/dogmatic positions has still to be investigated and demonstrated theologically in regard to this question.

4. The Ordination of Women in the First Six Hundred Years was, in Every Instance, Ordination to the Diaconate.

Not every female deacon was ordained, in the early Church; nor was every male deacon.(11) Ordination to the diaconate did take place, however, at least at certain times and in certain places. Such ministries, both male and female, were also, according to practice, considered as clerical. (12)

These ordained women deacons, along with those who were “instituted” or “ordered” to the diaconate, are not to be confused with the deaconesses who were wives of diakonoi, presbyteroi or episkopoi. These “deaconesses” shared, to some extent in the ministry of their husbands. Neither are they to be identified uncritically and categorically with the “widows,” although, at times, women deacons are referred to as “widows.” It must also be pointed out that the diaconal functions of women in the early Church were sometimes more limited than those of male deacons.

In the last analysis, the evidences of history point to the fact that a type of diaconate was at one time conferred on women through real and valid ordination.

5. To Date, there is no Evidence that Women Were Ever Ordained or Admitted in any Other Way to a Ministry of Presiding at the Eucharist, in the Patristic Era.

The evidence, on this point, is all to the contrary. The Fathers of the Church strictly followed the practice which had preceded them. Jesus had not chosen any women among his Twelve. Still, there were women in his company who showed what might be considered as the necessary qualities for apostleship. Some of these the Lord mandated to be witnesses of the resurrection.(15) Even though many women had been followers of Jesus from the very beginning of his ministry, none of them was chosen to exercise a central leadership function within the ecclesial community. A continuation of this attitude into the patristic era has resulted in the clear fact that there were never women priests in the early Christian Church.(16)

6. The Quasi-Episcopal Abbesses Exercised a Ministry of “Jurisdiction” Comparable to that of Episcopal Administration.

It was not uncommon for women to be leaders of double communities of monks and nuns in early monasticism. This practice was found both in the East and in the West, in the first Christian centuries.(17) This jurisdiction had its counterpart in the right of queens and empresses to rule over their own territories.

The quasi-episcopal jurisdiction of the abbess was not completely identical to that of the bishop. Certain functions, particularly those which were sacramental, were reserved to the bishop. An abbess with jurisdiction carried all the duties of a bishop as far as ecclesiastical and civil administration went. Their status did not entail priestly ordination, although a form of ordination was conferred on abbesses, at one time.(l8)

7. A Diminishment of Women’s Role in Ecclesial Ministry Began before the End of the Patristic Era .

The diminishment of women’s role in the ministry of the Church during the first six hundred years seems due to several factors.

In the first place, a change was introduced in the manner of administering those ecclesial, sacramental actions in which the service of women toward other women was specifically indicated. The sacrament of baptism provides the clearest example of this change. Developing social customs also modified the occasions on which the ministry of a man might be considered appropriate and acceptable in service to women, in distinction from the mores of an earlier era.

The admission of women to priesthood and episcopacy in groups regarded as heretical by the orthodox community also proved to be a cause of the diminishing role of women in ministry.(19) The great Church was constrained to avoid all possibility of identification with those groups which claimed to be “Christian,” but which introduced practices reminiscent of paganism at the same time as they proposed teaching which was not consonant with the apostolic Traditio.

A third source of influence which contributed to a lessened role for Christian women in ministry was the nearly constant fear on the part of Christian converts from paganism of approximating idolatry—consciously or unconsciously — through the inadvertent invocation of the old gods. The use of certain musical instruments could well mean that worship was unwillingly and unwittingly being offered to the deities associated with fertility rites and sacred prostitution. The prominent place accorded women in sects such as the Montanists impelled the orthodox Christians to remove women from those services which might suggest her ascendency in ritual and worship.(20)

Still another cause for the diminishment of women’s role in the early Church was rather theological and spiritual. It can be most simply stated as the loss of the sense of koinonia as a primary value in the Christian community.(21) With increasing numbers of members, the need for the development of representative ministers grew and it became less possible to assure to every member of the community a role of active participation in ecclesial ministry. This was especially so in regard to the praying, worshipping community. The unity of the ekklesia was signified, necessarily, in new modes and new models of ministry. The minister of the community came to be perceived as cleric and male, almost without exception.

A final cause of women’s diminished role in ministry can be traced to the rise of the monastic orders. As women who had chosen to live their lives in the service of the Church became members of the rapidly multiplying communities, their ministries were removed in time from the great Church and many of these services disappeared from lack of use. The monastic life, itself, became the arena for the development of other types of witness and service for Christian women, but the concept of ecclesial ministry for women underwent a dramatic transformation, as a result of this development. It might be noted that, in the Roman Catholic Church, where religious orders and congregations have flourished with vigor through the centuries, religious women are today in the forefront in the search to rediscover the sense of ecclesial ministry for women and in the effort to create new modes of ministry for women in the Church.

The role of women in ministry has become an issue and a question for Christians engaged in ecumenical dialogue. Shared reflections on attitudes and actions in past and present experience have led to an identification of practices which seem to hinder the growth toward unity, just as they appear to give counter-witness to the proclamation of true freedom in Christ. This brief overview of the situation which prevailed in the first six hundred years of the Christian era is offered with the hope that it may contribute to a clarification of a question which is a matter of deep concern and to the articulation of a response which is both faithful and creative in its interpretation of authentic Tradition.

Footnotes

1. The monumental bibliography of material on the role of women can scarcely be encompassed by the ordinary reader. The theological investigation of this question has grown more slowly. The first major address devoted to this topic by the Catholic Theological Society of America was delivered at the annual convention in San Francisco in 1969 (“The Ministry of Women in the Church,” Agnes Cunningham, sscm).

2. Cf. The American Ecclesiastical Review , Vol. CLXV, No. 3, November, 1971; Le ministere des femmes dans 1’église ancienne, Roger Gryson (Gembloux, Belgium, J. Duculot, 1972); Women in Christian Tradition, Georges Tavard (Fides, 1974), along with bibliographies now readily available in major works.

3. This question has been discussed and developed in Chrétiennes des Premiers Temps , Jean-Claude Guy, S. J. and Francois Refoulé, O.P. (eds.) ( Les Editions du Cerf, Paris 1965).

4. The inspiration for many of the early Christians was found in the classic texts: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4.

5. Cf. , especially the Report of the CLSA Ad Hoc Committee to Study the Ordination of Women,” August 24, 1973 (Canon Law Society of America) .

6. Cf. Le ministere des femmes dans l’Eglise ancienne , Jean Daniélou ( La Maison-Dieu, 61, pp. 70-96).

7. Cf. “Ordained Women in the Early Church,” Charles R.Meyer ( Chicago Studies 4/3. Fall, 1965; esp., 297-298).

8. Ibid,. pp. 298-303.

9. The Pauline figure was a favorite of the Fathers, e.g., Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, the Greeks and Latins of the Golden Age .

10. Cf. CLS A “Report” referred to above. This conclusion is shared by those who have studied the question. It is clear from a serious reading of the appropriate documents.

11. Gryson, op.cit. , speaks of the deacons who were “inscribed” or “instituted” in their ministry.

12. Ibid. The liturgical lists bear witness to this fact.

13. Cf. Women of the Church, Mary Lawrence McKenna (Fides, 1967) and Gryson, op.cit. , for a detailed discussion of this aspect of the question.

14. This, of course, depended on the needs of the local Church, among other things.

15. Cf. , John 20: 17 ff.; Luke 24: 1-13; Matthew 28: 10.

16. Any attempt to demonstrate an exception to this practice has still to be validated.

17. Cf. The Lady was a Bishop, Joan Morris (Macmillan, 1973), pp. 9-23 .

18. Cf. Ibid, p. 23.

19. At first sight, this seems to be the major objection to a primary role for women in the early Church. Further investigation points to the fact that it is one significant reason among others for the diminishment of women’s role.

20. This entire question is thoroughly discussed in, Musik Und Gesang in Den Kulten der Heidnischen Antike Und Christlichen Fruhzeit, J. Quasten (Münster Westfalen, Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1973), chapter IV, pp. 111 ff.

21. Ibid., passim, but especially pp. 111-132.